


Prosecution

by Chesari



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Dialogue-Only, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-21
Updated: 2011-05-21
Packaged: 2017-10-19 16:44:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chesari/pseuds/Chesari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A coda to "Body Parts". Odo stops by Quark's to have a chat with the proprietor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prosecution

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little gen fic for the [Station Log Ficathon](http://community.livejournal.com/ds9agogo/180280.html) at [](http://ds9agogo.livejournal.com/profile)[**ds9agogo**](http://ds9agogo.livejournal.com/). The prompt is "Quark and or Odo: not as adversarial as it may at first appear". T-rated for discussion of suicide, set immediately after 4x25 "Body Parts", It's about 1,000 words, and 100% of those words are dialogue.

"Quark."

"Odo."

"Brunt has left the station."

"I don't see why you're telling me. I already knew he was leaving."

"I escorted him to the airlock myself."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because I haven't forgotten that he once hired two Nausicaans to assault a civilian in my jurisdiction."

"Oh. You... You're here to reassure me that I'm safe now! That's sweet of you, Odo. I always knew you cared."

"Your feelings are no concern of mine. I'm here to discuss Brunt's activities on this station. I won't have him disrupting security, regardless of what I think of you or anyone else he does harm to."

"He didn't have any Nausicaans with him this time."

"No. Just the authority to take everything you used to own."

"Yeah. That. Thank you so much for reminding me."

"He said something intriguing on the way back to his ship."

"And what would that be?"

"He said that if he couldn't have you in fifty-two disks of dessicated powder, he supposed that having all your possessions would have to do. Apparently he wants you dead."

"That's just talk. Maybe he wishes I were dead, but he didn't try to kill me."

"But he did expect you to die. Perhaps he thought that you'd rather commit suicide than break a contract with another Ferengi."

"Hah! If he thought that, he's an idiot. I wouldn't kill myself. Couldn't if I wanted to. I'm not some Klingon with a death wish."

"You're not brave enough to do it?"

"Not stupid enough, more like. I have a healthy respect for death."

"If by 'respect for' you mean 'fear of'."

"Whatever. Anyway, Brunt thought I was dying from Dorek Syndrome."

"Oh, I don't think he ever believed that."

"That's what I listed as the cause of death when I put my remains up for sale, because that's what my doctor told me I had."

"Ah, yes. Doctor Orpax."

"...I'm not going to ask why you know that."

"Hmmph. It just so happens that a cousin of Brunt's recently paid Orpax twenty bars of latinum for 'services rendered' without ever setting foot in the man's office. And it just so happens that not long before that, Brunt paid that cousin twenty-five bars."

"He... Oh, that's just great. That figures. And you just so happened to find out about it."

"As an officer of the law, it is my duty to investigate suspicious individuals who board this station."

"What, all Ferengi are suspicious?"

"That particular Ferengi was previously involved in an assault. And any associate of yours is certainly worthy of suspicion."

"Right. Great. Well... Thanks, I guess, for letting me know that I've been had. Now leave me alone."

"I'm not done yet, Quark. I don't believe for a second that you'd be capable of committing suicide. If nothing else, you'd be too afraid to pull the trigger. But I do believe that you could hire someone else to murder you, if you thought that your death was necessary."

"What a fascinating theory! Go away."

"I would have caught Garak."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"He's very good, but I would have caught him. After, and under Bajoran law he'd be facing possible execution. Before, and both of you would spend at least ten years in prison - murder for hire is still murder for hire, even when the target is yourself."

"In that completely hypothetical and obviously ridiculous situation... After, I wouldn't be around to care. And before, you'd what, send me to a penal colony to keep me safe from myself? What a brilliant plan! Nothing bad ever happens at penal colonies. There certainly wouldn't be any murderers there who I could convince to kill me."

"You'd be kept in a holding cell under my supervision until your trial, which would take place well after the time specified in your contract with Brunt. You would have ended up alive and in jail, and since the contract would be left unfulfilled, Brunt would have taken all of your assets. Even if your plan had succeeded, you would have been dead and another man might also have died because of you. And your body would have been evidence in a murder investigation, so it would not be released for dessication until after the time limit in the contract. Brunt would still have taken all of your assets."

"Just get to the point."

"The point is that your scheme would not have worked. No matter how it turned out, you would have been worse off than you are now. You should be glad that you changed your mind."

"Hypothetically speaking."

"Of course."

"Well, I'm here, I'm not dead, and nobody tried to kill me."

"Brunt tried, as far as I'm concerned. You should have asked me for help in the first place."

"WHAT?! You? Don't make me laugh, Odo! You've spent the last seven years persecuting me, trying to find any excuse to throw me in prison, and now you expect me to come to *YOU* for help with a contract issue? I'd have to be crazy."

"I would not allow enforcement of a contract that required your death."

"Ferengi law doesn't allow that either. There's just a penalty for breaking the contract."

"Under Bajoran law it would simply be void."

"Last I checked I wasn't a Bajoran."

"You live on a Bajoran station, and your belongings were here as well. If you had told me about your little 'contract issue', I might have discovered Brunt's bribery of the doctor soon enough to stop him from repossessing everything you owned."

"You couldn't have stopped him with that. Bribery is legal on Ferenginar."

"It isn't legal here, and neither is extortion."

"This whole thing was a Ferengi matter, and it was none of your business."

"Any illegal act committed aboard this station is my business."

"Odo... Look, Brunt was going to get his pound of flesh no matter what. If you threw him in jail, someone else from the FCA would have shown up to take my assets and revoke my business license."

"If you had pressed charges against him and the Nausicaans five months ago, he would have been in jail already and this situation would never have occurred."

"I had my reasons for not pressing charges."

"Reasons that you refused to explain."

"Like I told you then, none of your business."

"I suppose you were afraid that the FCA would send another Liquidator after you."

"...not just me."

"Rom? You were worried about Rom?"

"Don't sound so surprised. My family is very important to me. Rom's an idiot, but that doesn't mean I don't care about him."

"Hmmph. Touching. But it seems to me that you and your family have suffered a great deal at the hands of the FCA and Ferengi law. Frankly, you're better off-"

"DON'T. Do not say that. You say that, and I'll never speak to you again."

"...Why not apply for Bajoran citizenship? For all intents and purposes you're no longer a citizen of the Ferengi Alliance."

"Not for now, but I'll get my license back."

"I can't say I understand why you'd want to."

"Well, you wouldn't understand, because you're not a Ferengi."

"Try me."

"It... Look, it... You can't, ah, you can't get into the Divine Treasury without doing business with other Ferengi. So, obviously, I'm hoping to get my license back so I can deal with my people again."

"You really believe that, don't you."

"You have your principles, and I have mine."

"Fair enough. But Quark?"

"What?"

"Don't follow your principles to the point of idiocy. If you ever try something that foolish again, I'll see to it that you are prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

"...Thanks, Odo. I love you too."

"Hmmph."


End file.
